Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Pope Francis met on April 25 with President Tamás Sulyok on Hungary.

A brief statement released by the Vatican after the meeting indicated that the conversation had centered on Church-state relations. The discussion also touched on the war in Ukraine and its consequences.

Questioned whether the reforms begun by Pope Francis will endure, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, said: “Precisely because it is the action of the Spirit, there can be no turning around.”

Cardinal Parolin offered that thought at a press conference introducing a new book about Vatican controversies by the journalist Ignazio Ingrao. In that book the author writes of “irreversible processes” of reform begun in this pontificate.

Today is the Feast of St. Mark, the Evangelist, the author of the second Gospel, was the son of Mary whose house at Jerusalem was the meeting place of Christians, where St. Peter sough refuge after having been freed from prison. He was baptized and instructed by St. Peter. He accompanied St. Paul and his own cousin St. Barnabas in the evangelization of Cyprus before he became the companion and secretary of St. Peter in Rome about the year 42 A.D.. He wrote his Gospel about the year 50 A.D. His Gospel is a record of St. Peter's preaching about Our Lord and pays special attention to the head of the Apostles, and emphasizes the miraculous powers of the Savior. The Gospel was written for Roman Gentile converts. It rarely quotes the Old Testament, and is careful to explain Jewish customs, rites and words. It excels in portraying the emotions and affections of both Christ and His hearers. St. Mark preached in Egypt, especially in Alexandria and was martyred there by the heathen.

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America’s fertility rate has hit an all-time low.

New data from the federal government show a rate of 1.62 births per woman in 2023. That figure, a 2% decline from the previous year, is the lowest ever recorded.

The number of births in 2023 also dropped 2% from the previous year, The 3.59 million births were the fewest since 1979.

The birth rate in the US has been declining 1 to 2% consistently over the past decade. The fertility rate is now well under the “replacement rate” of 2.1 children per woman.

Responding to negative public reactions, the Catholic Answers web site has announced that an artificial character who answers questions using artificial intelligence (AI) will no longer be identified as “Father Justin” but simply as “Justin.”

Early this week, Catholic Answers introduced the AI-generated character, which answers questions by drawing on the site’s archives. The experiment proved unpopular with many users, who questioned the prudence of using AI to answer serious questions of faith—and especially to invoke the authority of the priesthood. One user reported that “Father Justin” had, on request, agreed to a “virtual confession, all the way to giving me absolution and a penance.”

The new edition of the Vatican yearbook, the Annuario Pontificio, has subtracted a year from the listed age of Cardinal John Njue, the retired Archbishop of Nairobi.

Because his birth records are unavailable, Cardinal Njue had been listed as being born simply in “1944.” That date has now been corrected to January 1, 1946.

The change has important implications for Cardinal Njue, who would have become ineligible to vote in a papal election or sit on a Vatican dicastery upon reaching his 80th birthday—which had previously been set at December 31 of this year.

An infant with a congenital heart condition has been airlifted from a hospital in the United Kingdom to Rome, to undergo emergency surgery at the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Hospital.

The child, who has not been identified, is the child of an Italian citizen who lives and works in the UK. He sought treatment for the baby in Rome after being informed by the National Health Service that treatment would not be approved.

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